By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A 22-year-old man who claimed he violated his bail conditions because he was kicked out of the home he was staying in was yesterday sentenced to one year in prison.
Police said Peter Estiamble failed to obey the conditions of his curfew on six occasions spanning from January 1-24, after he was granted bail in the Supreme Court for the offences of burglary and indecent assault.
The court was told on January 24, people at the electronic monitoring centre told police had been contacted around 12.11am and informed he was in breach of his 8pm-6am curfew. The prosecution said the accused was warned and told to go to his residence but declined. Estimable was arrested. The court was told the monitoring centre and Migrafill Security company also provided police two reports highlighting all the times the accused breached his bail conditions. When officers showed Estiamble the reports, he declined to comment.
Yesterday, Estiamble told the magistrate he breached his curfew because he and his brother had an argument and he was “kicked outside of the house”. The accused said when he called the monitoring centre to explain his situation, they told him to go to the police station. He claimed when he went there, the officers told him to go back home and sleep in his yard, but he didn’t want to because the area wasn’t enclosed. Estiamble said he did not go to court yet, because he was trying to “save a couple dollars” to retain a lawyer.
Magistrate Vogt-Evans said she could understand his situation inconveniencing him once or twice, but she could not agree with him choosing to violate his bail conditions on six different occasions. She told Estiamble because he had ample opportunity to explain his situation and get the issue sorted out, she was going to convict him of the offences and sentence him to one year in prison on each count. All of the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
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